In the excitement and stomach-churning anticipation before going on stage for this incarnation of Crimson's debut performance, one of the newly-formed five piece anxiously enquired [endtease]"What are we going to play?" Jamie Muir chipped in "Oh, Let's improvise."
And they did.
Quite a few in the audience that night would have been at the same club 18 months earlier to see the debut of the Islands-era Crim. And it's a fair bet that many were hoping to hear their old favourites.
But what they got was something entirely different.
What this show lacks in audio fidelity, it more than makes up for in the unique musical content: long improvisations and early transitional arrangements of better-known pieces.
This restored bootleg was first released on CD as KCCC20 in 2002.
In the excitement and stomach-churning anticipation before going on stage for this incarnation of Crimson's debut performance, one of the newly-formed five piece anxiously enquired [endtease]"What are we going to play?" Jamie Muir chipped in "Oh, Let's improvise."
And they did.
Quite a few in the audience that night would have been at the same c...
Yes, in fact it sounds quite ok to my ears,actually really good, but could it be that Disc 1 and Disc 2 are mixed up in the Download Folder, i.e. "Disc 1" is really "Disc 2" and vice versa ? Just curious ;-)
Written by Marc-andre Robitaille
Happy with it!
Setlist 5, Performance 5, Sound 2. Debating if I should get or not because of sound quality and I did anyway and am very happy.Basically just like DGM’s notes say: the performance more than makes up for the lacking audio quality. The performance is truely amazing and the Zoom and Providence Improvs. are really worth the buy.
Written by Gun Schill
Zoom Frankfurt
Zoom Club in Frankfurt(Germany)was a bit bigger than the Marquee in London, not much though. Hence the intimate feel, with clanking sounds from the audience. I was a bit annoyed by the beery/cheery "surround sound" in the club, especially in the lots of quieter moments from the band on stage. The stage was not just straight up front, but extended in a curve to the left side, where the violin player was positioned. And indeed, this person was playing flute as well. That info is missing on DGM....
Zoom Club in Frankfurt(Germany)was a bit bigger than the Marquee in London, not much though. Hence the intimate feel, with clanking sounds from the audience. I was a bit annoyed by the beery/cheery "surround sound" in the club, especially in the lots of quieter moments from the band on stage. The stage was not just straight up front, but extended in a curve to the left side, where the violin player was positioned. And indeed, this person was playing flute as well. That info is missing on DGM. From far left to right on stage were: Cross, Wetton, Bruford, Muir, Fripp. Wonder, were the recorder positioned his mics, maybe behind the FOH mixer in the back of the room, as there is some stereo inside but not representative of the actual spread of the band. Anyway THX for publishing,it brings back good memories of a very exciting,inspirational bunch of young musicians. And I’m happy that most of them are still active.
Written by Jordan Clifford
Zoom
I’m so curious about the track known as "Zoom." One could assume titled after the venue, but does not have the "Improv:" prefix, yet offers no other information, and is partly improv and partly not. The first part of it sounds like they’ve launched into a song they knew in advance, but the first 6 minutes are instrumental and play with an early version of musical themes in "Lament", without holding to it. Actually the first 5 minutes sound like one song, with a musical bridge of violin ...
I’m so curious about the track known as "Zoom." One could assume titled after the venue, but does not have the "Improv:" prefix, yet offers no other information, and is partly improv and partly not. The first part of it sounds like they’ve launched into a song they knew in advance, but the first 6 minutes are instrumental and play with an early version of musical themes in "Lament", without holding to it. Actually the first 5 minutes sound like one song, with a musical bridge of violin into a different song, getting into lyrics in a bluesy song that is somewhat unlike most other KC material of the time, almost like "Crossroads". The closest thing it sounds like overall, by the end, is "One More Red Nightmare." Given this era’s gift for improvisation, it’s possible the first 6 minute were a very good and tight improv that goes into a pre-written song. Then it goes into the Wetton Bass/Scat solo for a while, but it isn’t an improv in its own right, it is a solo taken during the song, which then continues into a sort of jamming-within-song-structure type of improv. Eventually Fripp comes in with his classic Fripp exploratory guitar improv and the band follows at will. Call it an "Improv" from the point of the bass solo/scat if you like, but it’s not a stand-alone improv, it’s really a jam. After that it starts to sound more like improv, but then the bass line from the song picks back up at 19 minutes and they continue to jam further on it, with pieces from what sound like "Doctor Diamond" and/or "One More Right Nightmare." As a whole track, "Zoom"’s first 12-16 minutes basically sound like either 1 or 2 written and rehearsed song(s), with elements of improv in the first 3 minutes and extensive jamming in the middle through to the end. BUT WHAT WAS THAT SONG THOUGH? I thought it could be a "Get Thy Bearings" situation, where they cover a song to use it as a launch pad, but it doesn’t seem so. Does anyone have more info? I don’t have the LTIA BOXSET yet, so I don’t know if this song "Zoom" or anything like it was ever played again. Was it a cover that they all knew that they used to jump into a jam? It seems so odd to play a song so well and never play it again.